U.S. Supreme Court to review issue of whether teenage murderers should get life without parole

Christi Lynn Cheramie, who was 16 when she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Avoyelles Parish, asked the Louisiana Board of Pardons for clemency on Wednesday. Wardens have called Cheramie, now 33, "a model inmate" who earned both a GED and an associate's degree. Close relatives of her victim are sympathetic.

Cheramie family photoChristi Cheramie at a prison graduation in 2009

But murderers are rarely granted clemency. And Cheramie's odds are even more slim in Louisiana, where the parole board grants few petitions.

But over the past several years, there has been some movement toward liberalizing the way the justice system treats juvenile criminals, even violent ones.

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Eighth and 14th amendments prohibit the execution of criminals who commit crimes while under age 18. And last year, the high court again curtailed sentences for youth, this time striking down life-without-parole sentences for juveniles who committed offenses less than murder.

Just a month ago, the nation's top court agreed to hear two cases, one from Alabama and one from Arkansas, from inmates convicted of murder when they were 14. The court is expected to decide whether teenage murderers should be sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Nationally, about 2,400 prisoners are serving life for murders they committed as juveniles. About 180 are in Louisiana.

In recent years, policymakers and public sentiment increasingly reflect the idea that even the most wayward youth have the ability to reform. For instance, last month, in a poll commissioned by the Campaign for Youth Justice, 76 percent of respondents said "juveniles have the potential to change for the better."

Some of the changed public attitude reflects scientific findings that adolescent brains are not fully formed until well beyond age 18, leaving teens more susceptible to peer influence and less able to control their aggression and impulses.

Such research was cited by the Supreme Court in its 2005 Roper v. Simmmons ruling, which barred the execution of juvenile criminals. "From a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed," wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy for the majority.

The Roper decision moved four convicted murderers off Louisiana's death row, changing their sentences to life without parole.

In Louisiana, state Sen. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, last year sponsored a bill that would have abolished the sentencing of juveniles to life without parole for any crime. It failed 25-10 in a floor vote.

The abolition of life sentences for youth is also a top legislative issue for the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, said associate director Rob Tasman, who said that supportive legislators both saw youth as different from adults and believed in the religious concept of redemption.

The bishops and Martiny are joined by Amnesty International, which released a report Wednesday advocating a ban on life sentences for juveniles. The Amnesty report describes how Cheramie accompanied her fiance, Gene Mayeaux, to Marksville, where he stabbed and robbed his great-aunt, Mildred Turnage.

Police arrested Mayeaux the day after the murder, because his grandmother suspected him. He first told detectives that he was in New Orleans at the time of the murder, then that he'd found his aunt's dead body, and then that he'd seen his mother murder his aunt. After Cheramie returned to the police station, having led detectives to the cup where he'd stashed the stolen money, Mayeaux accused her of the killing.

Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana director Dana Kaplan said that Cheramie's case is emblematic of many juvenile murder cases. Like roughly two-thirds of juveniles convicted of murder, Cheramie didn't wield the knife or pull the trigger: she was guilty because she was at the scene, in the company of someone else -- in her case, a controlling boyfriend.

"Gene told me to go help (Turnage) make coffee," wrote Cheramie in her clemency petition. "Mrs. Turnage was standing at the stove making the coffee and I was standing by the countertop. Gene walked up behind us and he pulled out a knife and stabbed her in the back. She fell down, and he stabbed her again."

Last year, the Supreme Court gave Cheramie a jolt of hope -- but no immediate chance for release -- as it handed down its Graham v. Florida decision, which barred life sentences for juveniles guilty of crimes other than murder. It's believed to have affected 129 prisoners nationwide. Almost all of them are in Louisiana, which had 48 such prisoners, or Florida, which had 77. Most were convicted of rape, armed robbery or kidnapping.

View full sizeU.S. Department of JusticeThe U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana filed petitions on behalf of all 48, Kaplan said.

Last year, JJPL secured the first releases under Graham, both from New Orleans: Josh Carter, convicted of rape in 1962, and Robert Caston, who was also found guilty of rape, in 1968.

To date, a handful of other state prisoners have been resentenced to definitive, non-life prison terms. A total of five have been released, four from Orleans and one from Desoto Parish.

Other cases have stalled, because judges are both wary about releasing kidnappers and rapists and confused about what exactly the Graham decision orders them to do. While the opinion states that "a state is not required to guarantee eventual freedom," it also orders that defendants be given a "meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation."

District attorneys and defense lawyers are debating the meaning of "meaningful."

In a decision rendered last week about three Graham cases, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered the Department of Corrections to set a date of parole eligibility for each defendant.

But Justice Bernette Johnson, in a dissent to the decision, said that the instruction was meaningless because "there is no way to calculate a parole-eligibility date for a life sentence."

The Iowa legislature gave Graham-affected prisoners a chance for release after they'd served 25 years. Other states have debated 35 or 60 years.

In Nevada, where a good share of prisoners get parole the first time they apply, the legislature merely gave all affected defendants a chance at parole, Kaplan said, noting that because so few parole petitions are granted in Louisiana, the same legislation is not likely to equate to "meaningful opportunity" here.

There are also some questions about how to determine whether an inmate is aptly rehabilitated.

In Caston's case, lawyers argued that he'd demonstrated reform by rising to a Class A trustee and being recommended for pardon four times, JJPL legal director Carol Kolinchak said.

Because of her crime, Cheramie doesn't qualify for release under Graham. But she's hoping that changing mores will give her another crack at life on the outside.

"I am not the 16-year-old girl I once was," Cheramie wrote in her petition for clemency. "I believe if given a chance, I could do wonderful things as a free person."